Bus riding

Last Firday I took Sizzle on the bus to Tooting to pick up my car from the garage. I have taken all my dogs on public transports when they were young but have not done it with Sizzle, so this was a good opportunity.

I am not a public transport user so I was a bit worried that if the bus would happily allow me and the dog on board. We need to change two buses to get to Tooting, so from our house to Mitcham Town Centre was no problem at all. We were riding on the upper deck so Sizzle gets to see the "outside" world on the higer level. He seems confident and not worried about the ride at all.

Unfortunately we had a little problem when get to Mitcham to change another bus to Tooting. Since I had an easy ride earlier, so I was expecting all buses take dogs but this particular bus to Tooting refused to take us without explaination! As I have a foot on the bus and the bus driver slam the door and I've got my foot caught in it and thank God it didn't hurt Sizzle as I was carrying him. I was furious! I do not mind if he told me politely that he wouldn't take dog but slamming the door on me without a reason is not exceptable!

Luckily another bus coming along and happily allowed us on board.

Sizzle is waiting for the bus at the bus stop

Sizzle's first bus ride

I don't want a 2x2 but I want a 4x4!

I decided I will go to Pachesham yesterday for our weekly club training. Tuesday (Sizzle's puppy class) was cancelled due to the heavy snow. A few friends called me crazy as they think it is dangerous to drive in the black icy road. I know the coucil has put down a lot of salt grid (we heard from the radio that some part/area have ran out of grid!!) on the main road and I have been driving Colin to the Station everyday and we need to get on with life. We can't be put off by the snow!

We had rain yesterday, so mostly it was sloshy all the way to Pachesham. The countryside was so beautiful, all cover in white UNTOUCH snow. When I arrived, I was actually felt a bit regretted as the road was icy, sloshy, muddy ... the worst thing was my car got stuck in the middle of the parking place! I can't get the car to move at all, that really made me grumpy!

Luckily David (one of the new dog handler) came with a 4wd, he was very kind to tow me out but I lost my enthusiasim towards agility, so I handled Saturn very badly.

We did some jumping sequence with a A Frame stuck in between. We also did some difficult weave entries. Basically, Saturn was working in a nice speed but I lost him a few times as I was not concentrate. The major problem we have is still the A Frame. The first time, he actually CRAWL down the down plank; the second time, he came from a speedy jumping sequence and up the A Frame and that time, he was fast and nearly lost control (I think!) but he managed to put his two back legs on the plank; and after that, he started to go slow on the down plank again! Arggggghhhhhhh......

Maybe I should be thinking to run the A Frame with him? All ideas welcome please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After our training, I wanted to take the dogs to Oxshott Common, our usual dog walking place after training but I was so scared to get stuck in the car park as I know I will never get help from there! I then started to drive around the area to find a better car parking place, unfortunately Oxshott is a well countryside, so most of the roads are still covering in snow!

We managed to stop at Esher Common for a good walk. I wanted to take some photos in Pachesham but I was too worried and grumpy and I forgot all about it. They have a lovely wood where I walk the dogs before taking them to class. It was still covered in a very thick snow and most of the snow were untouch, so pretty.

Here are a few more snowy photos from the boys:

Saturn is a real photogenic in the snow, he always look so handsome and pose nicely

unfortunately his coat still hasn't come back, he looks very ugly underneath. Poor boy! I feed him sardine in sunflower oil (high in Omega) in the morning and yumega in the evening for the last one month and I have not see any improvement!! I am getting very upset about it now!

with the deep snow we have, it is a good chance to practise "find it". Sing and Sizzle love this "find it" game. Sing only wants to find his tennis ball where Sizzle likes to find a stick!

happy pair!

again, minus Seagull who still refuse to come out!

We didn't get to go to dogggie swim yesterday, Greyfriars called me on Wednesday to ask if I have a 4wd or else I better stay at home as they have even deeper snow! They told me some stuff were trying to learn skiing!!! Greyfriars was located in a valley, you need to drive down this narrow hilly private country road to get into them, so I assume they are try to ski down to work! Ah! I miss skiing. I haven't been skiing for 3 years now!

more snow photos!

Sorry guys, you have to bare with me (at least until all the snow is melting away) as I just can't get enough with the snow photos of the dogs!

This is cute little Sizzle playing fetch in the snow

Sing said: my teeth are as white as snow!

I didn't get many photos of Sing standing still this time as he is so crazy about snow. The most obedient dog has become the most disobedient dog!

we went to the hilly part of Mitcham Common today and we saw at least 6 big snow balls, here is my little man posing for a lovely photo. Do you think this is a good photo for making calender?

all the boys minus Seagull as I can't get him out of the house today!! He just wouldn't move and I hate dragging my dog.

looking lovely as a pair

this photo was taken yesterday, Seagull decided he wants a lie down after an hour's walk!

I find it very hard to take a good photo of Skye, his cold blue eye always makes him looks so sad

We are terrible!!

winter wonderland

We were building a snowman last evening, it was great fun. Since we have plenty of snow, we decided we want a decent size snowman. Here is Sizzle checking him out this morning.

It look like we are terrible in handling this heavy snow! Yesterday, thousand of schools has to close due to the heavy snow falls and the worst bit was MOST public transports were either cancelled or delayed. Colin didn't manage to go to work yesterday at all due to NO public transport from where we are to Central London. We were watching the news almost every hour and we saw those bus drivers on the TV playing snow ball fight! Aren't they suppose to drive instead of play?

Colin insisted that he MUST go into the office today no matter how, so I being braved and drove him to the Tube station this morning. Luckily I always park my "dog car" at the "outside" bit (closer to the road) of the driveway, I thought if we can scrap all the snow off the car, I should be able to drive the car onto the road easily. GOSH! It took us at least 20 minuites to clear all the windows! I drove very slowly and carefully and thank God there weren't many cars this morning.

After dropping Colin at the Station, I turned around and came home. Guess what? I was unable to roll the car back to the driveway, reason being, the snow is too thick! I have to dangerously leave the stuck car half in the drive and half on the road and quickly ran to the back of the garden to find a shovel. I didn't know it took a lot of effort and energy to clear the small part of the drive! I tried my best to clear as much as needed as I hate to leave the car in such a dangerous position and causing disruption. This shows you how inexperience I am when comes to handling the snow condition!

Some schools are still close today but when I rang my local dentists, they are all shut! I can't believe that doctors/dentists are allow to close? I am having this terrible toothache since Friday and determine to see a dentist to sort it out but it look like I will be continue suffering and moaning until the snow is clear!

BTW, I haven't seen our postman for two days!!

We had a little bit more snow this morning but the sun came out at 8am so I decided to take the boys out for another long walk. As it is much warmer than yesterday and the powdery snow becomes more solid and icy, the dogs will walk better on this condition than yesterday but Sizzle is the only one that having snow balls stuck on him, he must have such a fine coat!

some photos taken today:

I maybe bias but I really think he is a very handsome boy

Saturn always looks so handsome in the snow too

Sing, Saturn and Sizzle loves the snow the best, they like to run around in the garden and would not want to come in! Saturn likes catching the snow balls and eat them. I just like the big paws!

SNOW, at last!

We have snow! Lots of snow! Plenty of Snow!

It was very cold since Friday, the weather forecast said the wind is coming from Siberian and we will be expecting some snow either this weekend or early next week. The snow finally arrived last evening. I don't know what time it started snowing but we got home from visiting Daisy and her puppies about 6:15pm and it was still clear.

We were having dinner about 7:30pm and I was looking into the garden and saw some white stuff, I can't be sure it was snow as we always predict snow and we kept missing out, I do not want to put up my hope as you all know how much I enjoy snowing.

I have to go into the garden to investigate and making sure it is SNOWING! All the boys ran into the garden and chase around, then the snow was only about an inch deep.

Later around 9pm, I let the dogs out again for their bedtime toilet, the snow was heavier, I stick a measurement stick in to check the dept, it showed 2". Sing, Saturn and Sizzle were crazy tearing around in the garden and wouldn't want to come in at all.

We went to bed early as Colin needs to get to work on Monday, so by the time we woke up this morning at 6:30am, I pulled the curtain and to find out all the window is covering in snow! Blimey! I then took all the dogs out to the garden for their morning routine. Once I open the back door, I saw some snow coming in, it turned out that the snow is higher than the door!!! I quickly find the measurement tape to stick in the ground, it showed 5". I was so excited but I can see little Sizzle struggled to go to toilet!

Poor little boy is only about 12" tall and the snow is deep enough to cover all his legs! He actually CRAWL from the patio into the garden, when he saw Sing and Saturn ran down the garden and he decided he wants to join them so he did this little bunny jump, he is so cute!! Then, the big issue occured! He can't cock his leg to wee!!! When he lifted his leg, his underneath is still in the snow but he did try to wee though. The worst one is he cannot poo! I saw him trying so hard to find a spot to squad down and he was hoping from one spot to another but I can't tell if he managed to poo!

The news said this is the heaviest snow for 18 years. All public transports are not working today! I am not brave enough to drive Colin to the Station this morning and I have somehow persuaded him to work from home. He didn't quite agree with me but he suggested we take the boys out to the Common this morning and maybe go in to work a bit later. By 8am, the snow has increased up to 8" in our front garden, that is just amazing!!!

The boys, especially Sing and Saturn crazy about snow, Saturn kept digging into snow, I don't know what was he looking for but his face was covered in snow that made him looks so cute and handsome! Sing just kept teasing other dogs to play with him and he torn around like a lunatic! I have tried to take photos of him but they came out blurry, so no good for posting!

Saturn is crazy about snow ball, he likes to jump up and catch the snow ball I threw and here is the very cute photo of him! I like his BIG paw!!

another very cute photo of Saturn racing in the snow!

another one of happy Saturn with the two little evil one at background

Seagull was reacting very funny, he loves to go out but today, we need to drag him out from the house!!

these two smaller dogs really struggled walking in the Common, I don't know how deep is the snow but Sizzle and Seagull were the worst, they can hardly walk and their fur were stuck with lots of snow ball!!!!

you can see in this picture that poor little Sizzle is cover in snow balls!!! he looks rather cute but I think the snow balls actually putting him off

my little handsome chap

I also brought my sledge along, so we have some fun sledging with the dogs!!

At the time of posting, it is still snowing outside. I am very happy but Colin is getting worried that he may not be able to go to work again tomorrow, he is a real workaholic! Emmmm ... if this snow is not stopping, we may ended up 12" later!!! WOW! Fantastic!!! I better charged up camera to go hunting for more photos later!!!

Colin, the Shelties rescuer!

I nearly forgot to post this photo! Sizzle and Seagull were struggling to walk due to the snow balls built up on their fur. Seagull is a sissy, so he just hated wet and snow; as for Sizzle, some snow balls were so big and heavy, he just couldn't walk any further so their daddy has to go and rescue them!

Sing wants to be a father

SING is looking for a wife!!

He is CEA/PRA Clear and awaiting result for his Hip Score

with excellent pedigree

He has a superb temperament, very affectionate, loving, intelligent, smart, clever, agile and eager to please. He is very good with children and good with other dogs/puppies and cats. Sing was shown in several breed shows when he was a puppy, he always won a place. Unfortunately, as he was our first sheltie we didn't know how to fix his ears, we thought of him as just our pet dog.

Subsequently he has also excelled in flyball and agility. He is working Grade 5 in Agility. He was one of the finalists in the Kennel Club International Festival Novice Agility Cup 2007. He was also one of the Team members for the English Shetland Sheepdog Club to compete in Crufts 2008 in Team Agility and the Team came 2nd in the Final. He also won the Agility Club Medium Grade 4 Dog of the Year 2008.

He just returned to Flyball and he is holding the Flyball Dog and Flyball Dog Intermediate titles. He will be joining the Wimbledon Whizzers to compete in the European Flyball Championship in Belgium in May.

Any girlies out there who are interested in my handsome boy, kindly contact me for further discussion.

puppies

I have received a couple of emails from friends asking if these Daisy's puppies are sire by my Sing. I must clarify that these cute puppies are NOT sire by my handsome Sing; their sire is Willow Tarn Time And Tide.

The puppies are 17 days old now and Blaze is still my favourite, he is so busy crawling around and when I talked to him, he seems to listen up to me. Their eyes are open a couple of days ago, I don't think they are fully open yet but I guess another day or two will be wide open.

puppies' pedigree:

sire: Willow Tarn Time And Tide

dam: Tesoro Lace Stocking

Flyball Fun

We had a wonderful Flyball training this morning. Sizzle was doing very well, eventhough he wanted to play with the other dogs but when it was our turn, he was keen and enthusiastic and I can see him trying very hard to change his pasing, he managed to do the single step for the last two jumps. I think having this toy from CleanRun really helps him to come back to me even faster! When we first started three weeks ago, Guy & Ray at the Wimbledon Whizzers suggesting we should try to reward the dogs at the end with a higher reward, so a tuggy is the best toy. Most of you probably still remember I was having problem teaching Sizzle to tug and I have invested a lot of money in toys. This Dunkin's Stuffer Toy allows me to stuff yummy treats and Sizzle loves chasing it and hang on to it. I open up the pouch for him to get the treat when he started to tug even just for a short time. I will use this toy only at Flyball and today is the first time and I can see a great result of it already.

I've asked Colin again to try to take some "good" photos and here are the results:

Sizzle doing a run back, so there is no ball in his mouth

I love this photo of Sing eventhough it was taken from the slide angle

Sing's swimmer turn

Colin also practising his photography skill on other dogs:

this Malinois is sooooooooooooo fast!!!!

this GSD is in Sizzle's class


Maddy is in Sing's class and she is another very fast small dog!

a litte Note about Sing: He is looking brighter today and he was running faster at flyball too! But he got so tired after we got home, I need to carry him up to bed with me!!


here is a little video of today's training, the first clip was a run back; the usual thing we have to do eveytime we train or even compete, the reason behind is to let the dog knows this is the lane he should be running. The second clip was to send him over the jumps to fetch a static ball. He is still not brave enough to pick the ball from Becky (the boxloader)'s hand, so Becky has to put the ball on the floor for him to pick up. You can see him going up in speed and come back with speed then chase me for the tuggy and the best thing is he has NOT drop the ball until he gets on the tuggy. What a clever little boy!!

agility + swimming

agility - the frustration bit:

I started alternating Sing & Saturn classes. Saturn normally goes to the beginner class starts at 10:15am and Sing goes to the advanced class at 11:15am. Saturn went to the advnaced class yesterday and Sing went to the beginner class.

Saturn was at the advanced class again yesterday as Sing is a bit off colour this week. Saturn did pretty well with the A Frame last week, at least he wasn't creeping the down plank but yesterday, eventhough the target/treat pot was out there and visible to him, he was creeping in the entire hour!!

I have tried all sort of suggestions from my fellow agility friends and I think Saturn is probably to well train and he wanted to get it right so he make sure he will go slowly to the target! I am getting so frustrated and wonder if I should try to run the A Frame with him?

swimming, week 2:

Sizzle swam really well yesterday. It was his second lesson. I still pay for an assistant to be with him, just in case. His first swim was great, he actually wanted to jump in the water and get the ball and with a lot of voice encouragement from me and the assistant, he jump in at last but the super mini squeeky ball sank! Poor little boy. He actually swim with confidence the whole 25 minutes without any assistant needed. WooHoo!

Saturn, again was very noisy and crazy, he just love swimming in the pool ONLY!

Sing was definitely off colour as swimming is always his favourtie, he was slow and tired eventhough he tried to swim each time. This recall me seeing that he was slow and tired for the last few days. His toilet has been normal and I don't know if the anaesthetic still upset him. As I have then read a few articles about shelties and anaesthetic, shelties are definitely NOT anaesthetic friendly. I've also remembered Saturn took a long time to recover from anaesthetic.

luckily they didn't heat up the pool too hot this week so I managed to get some videos of the boys swimming:

I've been tagged AGAIN!

I've been tagged again, this time by Wall-e.

Since I have been tagged by Josh & Jess before, and I do not want to repeat the photo. I open one of my hardisks and found the above photo of Sing, age 12 weeks. It was taken aroud June 2002. We were holidaying in the Lake District. I can't remember the name of the beach but Colin determined to try to spot some whales! Also, this is the first time Sing tried to swim! BTW, we didn't see any whales at all that day!!!

NEW! The gems is on us!

I just love this blogger world, you learn new thing everyday! After we've been tagged by Josh & Jess in Wellington NZ to play open the 5th folder, 5th photo game and now our dearest friends in Upstate NY Oreo & Misty invite us to play the LETTER game. We were given the letter S and we need to list at least 5 things beginning with S.

Do you think this is cheating?

S for smart Sing

S for stupid Seagull

S for super Saturn

S for silly Skye

S for speedy Sizzle

As this is a truly international game, I better behaved, so here we go ...

1. SWIM - Sing wishes there is a lake/pond everywhere so he can go swimming anytime anywhere!

2. SQUIRRELS - Great game for the boys! They love to play chase with them!

3. SHOW - Sing & Saturn said: we hate going to an agility show, mummy make us run and run and run!! Titan, Skye & Sizzle said: we hate to stuck in the car/caravan, we want to get out there and play! Seagull said: I am quite happy to stuck in the car/caravan as I get plenty of treats and chews. Ah! That's heaven!

4. SHY - the boys said: we don't know why mummy keeps asking us to "shy shy" as we are so outgoing and we are definitely not shy of anything!!

5. SOCKS - wee Sizzle loves to play with socks, not the clean one unfortunately, the smelly the merrier!!

... now, can I add one more S, please?

that is SLEEP! I am so tired to find these five Sssss and my brain needs to sleep!

Hehe ... now I want to pass this fun game to ...........

the HudsonDoglets, and the letter is H , I know Nancy has a smart brain!

hit it board - this one for Rosie

Rosie asked me if I would recommend this "hit it" board? Personally, I think this is a great training gadget. It works like a clicker. If the dog understands a clicker, this is a very good and reliable tool to apply on an agility equipment especially when you are training on your own. I find it very difficult to watch my dog to see if he hits the target point then click & reward. Running with the dog, I don't think I can turn my head back to see what he is doing but this "hit it" board does the click for me. If the dog hits the board, it beep. This "hit it" board came into two sizes, a smaller size for the Dog Walk and a bigger size for the A Frame.

A couple of years ago, I was talking to my friend Helen Millyard about how to train Saturn to be more confidence on the contacts and she told me all about this super "hit it" board that I have never heard before. When we met up at an agility show later, she kindly lend it to me to try it on. Unfortunately it didn't work on Saturn, he has a longer body and it is always risky to get him to run the contacts. I then used the board on Sing for experiment, he is a very clever dog, he understands the board immediately and we were doing well to start with, so I went to purchase one from Nose Touch who produced this fantastic training tool but the website would not send the board outside US and I was very disappointed. Then I found out Clean Run will ship the board outside US so I immediately ordered one from them.

It didn't take me long to train Sing to run a near perfect Dog Walk with this "hit it" board. We are now about 98% accuracy. A straightline after DW is 100%. We still need to work on our turning sharp left and right after DW. If the board is there, there is no problem. If I encounter a new problem with the DW, I always put the board back on and Sing knows what to do.

Sorry if I have not mention about our running A Frame, we never have any problem running the A Frame, so I have not buy a bigger piece to train the A Frame.

I have uploaded one of our runs at KCI that shows both running A Frame and running DW and a few clips of our running DW:

Sizzle and his running contact

I am still trying to find the right method for Sizzle, I'm kinda 90% sure I do not want to do the 2o/2o with him, unless our running contacts gone horribly wrong then I may have to go back to 2o/2o. Anyway, I am still refreshing his "target"/"touch" separately on a regularly basis, that is just in case we need it. I have also teach him the "hit it" board.

Two weeks ago, I took a plank down and tried to introduce him to run the plank but he was too excited and he leap off before the marking point. After a few runs and a deep thought, I started putting a hoop at the end and that seems to stop him leaping and he learns to dive down at the end of the plank. I didn't get too much practise because the weather was so wet for the last two weeks and most part of the garden is full of puddles!

Luckily the weather brighten up a little bit (at least it is dry so far), so I took the opportunity to take him out to try on the HOOP + HIT IT to see what did we get out of it. For the first few runs, he tried to avoid hitting the board, so he managed to jump over the board and miss the marker point totally! I have to take him in and leave it because I do not know how to handle this error. In my mind, I do not want him to slow down but how could I make him understand he should hit the board at the same time he is running in his full speed?

So, we go back to do the "hit it" board on the ground, we have been doing it inside the house, in the garden, at club ... I have also try to run with him with the board visible ...

Last Friday, I thought we should give it a go to see if he understands the "hit it" board on the contact. I have to take him closer to the plank and show him the board is there and he needs to HIT it to get a reward. Again, the first run, he jump over the board, so I took him back half way through the plank and WALK him down, once he hits the board, I quickly reward him. Unfortunately, the third run, when I put him on the table to run the plank, he actually stops at the board until I throw his ball then he took off. We tried a couple more times and each time he stops at the board. I have to take him away from the plank and board and call it off as that is not what I want. Then, I took him out again after few hours rest, he was so much better but still hit and miss but I only did a few runs and that's it.

We have a weekend off and yesterday I show him the board, I do not know what will I expect but I decided I will run with him to see what comes out. The first run, he kinda stops at the board waiting for the reward but when I start running with him, he didn't even think of stopping. I am going to do more of this trial and error and hopefully we will find the right one for him.

here is our little practise video, the back ground is very noisy, our neighbour is a 0-5 nursery, I like to take the dogs out doing a little training when the kids are out, so they have to learn to work with me with a noisy background:

this one is for Ricky

In my previous post, I've mentioned about the worried of anaesthetic in shelties, Ricky left a message seeking for advice as his mum is thinking to take him to the vet to get his teeth clean.

I have been using "plaque off" for about three years now and I have seen the changes in my dogs' teeth especially Sing. All my dogs are on "plaque off" beside Sizzle as it suggested not suitable for puppies.

I am a very lazy owner, I am happy to groom them but not very good in cleaning their teeth. I brush their teeth when they were babies so they get used to being tooth brush but when their adult teeth starting to come up and I kinda "forget" to brush their teeth.

I gave half a spoon (the spoon comes inside the bottle) mix with the dog's dinner everyday, when Sing's teeth were full of tartar then, I also clean/tooth brush them once a week, then after his teeth are much better, I didn't clean them anymore but carry on with the "plaque off" and his teeth are in good condition and no tartar build up.

a very busy weekend

I haven't have a busy weekend for so long but this weekend past in no time!

We started Flyball training every Saturday now, Sizzle takes the beginners class starts at 10am, eventhough it is an hour's class but we always finish half an hour's later, simply because the dogs having such fun and no one wants to go home! Sing is in the second class, the class for competing dogs, again it was late finished. Then, this Saturday, we have some special training, so we stayed on and we didn't get home until 5:30pm!

Sizzle was very good boy at training, Colin said he was so much better with his footing but I need to have a special reward at the end of the line to keep him motivated. I need to think of something that he really likes. Guy was suggesting a tuggy but my litte Sizzle doesn't like tuggy! That's gonna be my homework, find a rewarding toy.

I think Sing was off colour, he was very slow, not quite himself and unfortunately we got timed for this week! He was on the "high" side, about 5.9seconds (his average time was 5.2seconds when we competed in 2005). Obviously I was very disappointed as I know he can run so much faster than this time. After talking to Colin and other friends that know me and Sing well, they said it could be the general anaesthetic (plus swimming) that affects his performance. He was taken to the vet for hip score on Tuesday and then swimming on Thursday then a two hours hill walking on Friday, that must have been tired him out totally.

I have just read on the Dog World (November 2008 issue), an article wrote by Barbara Thornley, a top sheltie breeder in this country, she said shelties are not particularly anaesthetic friendly and on occassions have died while under anaesthetic. If I were to read this before taking Sing to hip score, I would have passed it, nothing is more important that keeping my dog happy and healthy, I don't want to kill my dog by accident!

Sing obviously was very tired on Sunday but he is looking on a brighter side today, hopefully he will be on form this Saturday and hopefully we get to time again.

I didn't get Colin to video us too much, I have asked him to take some action shots of Sizzle and Sing. I hardly has any photo of Sing doing flyball let alone Sizzle who has never compete before. Guess what? Colin hates taking photo (and video), he did try but all the one that he took of my dogs came out blur or no dog in the picture!!! When I questioned him where is the dog, he said: HE IS TOO FAST! Grrrrrrr

this is Magic, other than Jordan's hand with tuggy on the way, it was a nice photo:

I think this is Weimaraner is the best

now, can you ask him why Sizzle is blur? and this is the best shot of Sizzle!!!!!!

So, after Flyball, we have to rush to Reading to meet up with Colin's friends for dinner. This was planned weeks ago. It was good to see some of his friends that we only see yearly. Tracy always cook wonderful meal eventhough they are vegetarian but I love her cooking. Her desserts were even mouth watering, yummy!

We tried to leave as early as we could as I hate to leave the dogs for long eventhough I have a little friend staying in the house to help looking after them. We got home about 11pm which is not too bad and spent an hour playing with them before we are allow to go to bed! Yes, the dogs are always the "boss" in this situation!

We haven't get any lie-in on Sunday either! We have to wake up early, feed the dogs, give the dogs a long walk then went to see some gorgeous puppies. Playing and watching them are just the best thing you can do.

We've been tagged too!

Our lovely fluffy friends Josh and Jessie in NZ tagged us:

Open a document or file folder

Click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo

Post the photo and describe it

Then tag 5 other bloggers

The above photo was taken in the Summer of 2003 (6 years ago!!!!) at a Companion Dog Show. Seagull used to be EXTREMELY nervous and timid, we took every opportunity to socialise him and of course he hates it. Letting strangers touching him was a nightmare, he has bitten so many people including some judges and our vet Kevin! In the photo you can see Colin was trying to hold him just in case he bite the judge.

Also, at the same day, Colin was showing Seagull in a different ring together with me showing Sing. It was a male judge (I don't know and don't remember who he was as I was still a newbie then). Something very serious happened in that ring with Colin and Seagull and Colin only told me when we got home that day. He said: the judge told me sheltie is not a man's dog! He was so upset and swore never show the dog again!

I think whoever the male judge was, he shouldn't be allowed to comment on this, maybe he didn't aware that he has hurt Colin completely but Colin will always have the phobia of showing dog! How cruel!!

Now, let me tags five of my friends:

OBay Shelties

4 Dog Craziness

Ricky

Life is better with Sheltie Hair

Just Todd